No matter what your business provides or what industry you belong to, it’s important to provide high-value information to your site or blog visitors. For example, if you provide health-related services, it’s a good idea to provide users with useful information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a ton of data gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to keep your site readers up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Mean?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- Once users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually check the website for content updates. Instead, their browser will continually monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news headlines, audio lists, etc., to which users can choose to subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be read with a program called a feed reader, or feed aggregator. Feed readers can be used to access content on all different kinds of topics and distribute this content online.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different machines and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine different RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from various different websites.
This in-depth article shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful method used to share content online. Feeds provide a way for web users to keep up with the latest information published on different websites and blogs.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy content from news agencies around the world.
Syndication allows online newspapers and influential online publications to deliver readers stories and news from all around the globe without having to send more news reporting agencies everywhere around the world …
(News reporting agencies use content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share content legitimately. Global media publications syndicate their content using feeds …
(Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)
Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many digital news publishing agencies and major online media publications contain a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “courier rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most digital content publishing agencies and major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(A website’s list of different feeds. Source: nytimes.com)
Each of these feeds allows you to access information about different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, sports news, science news, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain feed subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you have to do to use the feed is to copy the URL and paste it into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s business and helps you by freeing you up from having to create the content …
(Syndicating Content - Benefits)
While adding a feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s a great idea to try and get other websites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other sites syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Try to get other websites and blogs to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS – About
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta section – Entries RSS)
2) You can also find links or buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can simply copy the RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on the WP theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow Us, Links, or Social Share slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Share, or Subscribe toolbar)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s feed by typing your site’s URL into a browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your WP site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your RSS feed …
(RSS feed entries displayed with Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which web browser you are using …
(RSS feed content viewed with a Chrome browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many items you want to display in your RSS page, by going to your Reading Settings section and selecting the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication items)
Your feed section will show the number of posts as you have specified in your Reading Settings section …
(The feed page will display as many recent items you have specified in the WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will appear)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using Post excerpts in WordPress here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to syndicate and search for their RSS feed icon …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ button or link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.
Adding A Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you can display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed URL from a website containing content that you want to add to your site to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content should now appear in your sidebar …
(RSS Widget)
Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles
You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.
(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)
Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:
Adding Feeds To Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to WordPress posts instead of a sidebar? Yes, you can!
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside the Plugins screen for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds according to campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to import RSS feeds directly into posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
With POWr RSS Feed, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in any language.
The premium plugin version contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides versatile Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress-generated content.
As stated in the FeedWordPress website …
FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that display posts from multiple sources), or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, YouTube, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog – WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin For WordPress)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your posts.
To view the comments in your feed, locate the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items viewed with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(RSS comments feed items displayed with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your WordPress installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Individual Post Feeds
Being able to use an RSS feed for an individual post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS directories, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for displaying an RSS feed for single post items is shown below:
(Specific Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the web address of your post, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content about specific topics. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If you publish content under many categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate feed for each of these categories.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(WP category feed format)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy the category URL …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress post categories RSS feed format)
The RSS feed now only contains content specific to this particular category …
(Category-specific RSS feed page)
The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.
For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:
(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)
Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …
(WordPress post category feed format)
To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …
(Posts > Categories menu)
Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …
(Post Category ID)
In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …
(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)
Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …
(Paste the feed into your browser)
This will display the feed for that specific category …
(RSS feed of a specific post category)
Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …
(Post category feed format)
Here is the feed format again …
(Post category feed)
In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …
(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)
Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …
(Post category feed content)
Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.
Tip #4 – Set Up A Directory Of RSS Feeds
You can provide a feeds page that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in, just like the larger authoritative sites do …
(Provide Your Own List Of Feeds)
Link a button image like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button graphic. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial on inserting tables into WordPress posts and pages here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows a number of feed configurations without messing with code. Here are some examples of feed formats you can use and how to format these feeds …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that contains your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments left on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed containing specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that contains the latest comments made on individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/12/28/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Contains latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes the latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
It’s a good idea to let your visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Place a subscribe button or link somewhere visible …
(Promote your feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only want to syndicate your content if your information is useful, educational, or highly entertaining. In other words, focus on providing your subscribers with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add great content from other sites and get other users to share your content online using WordPress and RSS!)
If you need help coming up with content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- Feed Buttons – Visit online resource sites like Feedicons or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss buttons”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – Official WordPress documentation. Visit this site for more information about WordPress feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site via their RSS feed.
Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please see other posts on this site.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now